Letter to the Editor: A letter worth sharing

To the Editor:

Recently my wife, Sheri, and I were visiting a close friend, John Kittleson of Postville. He wanted us to see a letter that he had recently completed. He plans to send the letter to his children and grandchildren.

I read the letter and thought to myself that it was exactly what I’d like to write to our own family, and I thought that a lot of other people might want to as well. I suggested that he submit it to the editorial page of The Standard. He was reluctant to do that, so I asked him if I could do so. John agreed and his letter appears below:

My dear precious loving family (now 4 generations),

I’ve been thinking of writing this letter of encouragement for some time. We are getting overwhelmed by all the bad news connected with coronavirus, especially from the media.

But God has some good news to overcome all this bad news. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In God’s Word we have the summary of His love and life for us. Paul has described it so eloquently in the first three Chapters of Ephesians where He vividly gives us a description of this life for now, the future and eternity.

We are saved, redeemed by Jesus when He came to this earth to be our Savior. He bore the penalty for our sins on the cross and overcame and defeated sin, death and Satan by His glorious resurrection on Easter.

He graciously gives us the way to forgiveness and reconciliation with God through faith in Him and commitment of our lives to Him in gratitude. Even if we struggle with difficulty and problems in this earth, we have hope and promise in Christ that He has overcome evil and when our lives are committed to Him we are in a place of safety and assured security that cannot be overcome by circumstances on this earth. We are eternally saved and anchored in His grace of peace and bliss.

So, my Dear Family, take your position of faith in Christ and God’s Word as recorded in the first three chapters of Ephesians and you will be at peace in the midst of it all.

I love you all so much and am grateful to you for all you mean to me as Father and Grandpa. I pray daily for you and care deeply about you.

Sincerely,
Bob Erickson
Waukon